Short answer
At minimum: a shipping policy, a return and refund policy, a cancellation policy, a privacy policy, terms of service, and a contact page that names a grievance officer. Add a cookie policy, a product disclaimer, a warranty page and a payments page if they apply to what you sell. Each must match what your store really does, because ad platforms, payment gateways and shoppers all compare the two.
The short list
Required in practice: shipping policy, return and refund policy, cancellation policy, privacy policy, terms of service, and contact and grievance details.
Add when they apply: a cookie policy if you run analytics or ad pixels, a product disclaimer for categories like food, cosmetics, electronics or jewellery, a warranty page if you sell anything with one, and a payments and pricing page that says which methods you accept and what happens when a payment fails.
Why every platform asks for them
Google Merchant Center, Meta and payment gateways each look for visible shipping, return and contact terms when they review a store. A missing or vague page is a common reason for a disapproved feed, a rejected ad or a stalled gateway application.
They also check that what you wrote is true. If the policy says returns within seven days and checkout says ten, that mismatch is a bigger problem than a short policy.
What a shipping policy must say
Where you deliver, how long you take to dispatch, how long delivery usually takes, what shipping costs and the cart value above which it is free. Say whether you offer cash on delivery and what it costs, and what happens when a delivery fails.
If you take pre-orders or make products to order, say when they will ship. If you ship abroad, say who pays customs duties. Add how long after delivery a shopper has to report a damaged parcel.
What a return and refund policy must say
How many days a shopper has, what condition the item must be in, which items cannot be returned, who pays for return shipping, how a return is started, and how long a refund takes once you approve it. Say where the money goes: the original payment method, store credit or the shopper's choice.
For cash on delivery orders there is no payment to reverse, so say you refund by bank transfer or UPI and will ask for the details. Say whether sale items can be returned and whether you charge a restocking fee. Cancellations deserve their own page: until when an order can be cancelled, and what happens to a prepaid order cancelled after dispatch.
What a privacy policy must say
What personal data you collect, why, who you share it with, how long you keep it, and how a shopper can ask to see, correct or delete it. Name the tools that collect data, such as Google Analytics or the Meta Pixel, and the payment gateways that handle payment details so you do not store them yourself.
India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is being brought in in stages. The rules were notified in November 2025, and the main duties, including notice and consent, are due to apply from about May 2027. Writing your policy in plain language now, and saying how a shopper can withdraw consent, puts you ahead of that date.
The India specific parts
The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 apply to stores that sell their own stock as well as to marketplaces. They ask for a grievance officer whose name, designation and contact details are published, who acknowledges a complaint within 48 hours and resolves it within one month. Put that name and the timelines on a contact page.
The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 gives shoppers rights your terms cannot take away, so it is worth saying so rather than writing terms that claim you owe nothing. Shoppers can also reach the National Consumer Helpline on 1915.
Mistakes that cause problems
Copying another brand's policy, including its name, address and return window. Leaving a bracket or a placeholder in the published text. Stating a free shipping threshold in the policy that differs from the one in checkout, the banner or the product feed, since that number usually lives in several places and drifts.
Promising what you cannot do, such as refunds in 24 hours. And hiding the pages: link all of them from the footer so a reviewer, a shopper and a crawler can find them in one click.
How to publish them
On Shopify, add each policy as a page and link it from the footer menu. The Settings, Policies area takes plain text and also feeds the checkout links. On WooCommerce or WordPress, create a page for each and link them from the footer.
Then paste the page addresses into your Merchant Center and gateway settings where they ask for policy links, and check that each opens without a login.
Making them quickly
The free store policy generator writes all of these from your answers: shipping, returns, cancellation, privacy, cookies, terms, disclaimer, warranty, payments and grievance details. You can edit any line, hide sections you do not need, add your own clauses, and copy the result as text or HTML. It is a starting template, not legal advice, so read every line against how your store works and have a professional review it.